Thursday, December 31, 2009
Why Schools Should Learn To Use Online Services Like Facebook & YouTube Rather Than Banning Them
From an article at TechDirt
Sunday, September 06, 2009
A Practical use for Geometry
A typical question that always comes up at least once a semester from my students is when will they ever use this stuff in real life. My standard response has become, "I don't know. What do you plan on doing with your life?" Their usual response is that they don't know. So I tell them "It's ok if you don't know. But whatever it is, you had better be prepared for it and that's what you're here for." They seem to think that is a good idea and let the conversation go.
There is a McGyver tip titled Estimate Distances with Your Arm and This Rule of Thumb posted at LifeHacker. I used something like this for range estimation when I was in the Marine Corps. It relies on the ratio of the distance between your eyes and the length of your arm (usually about 1:10). The phenomena is called parallax. Astronomers parallax to estimate the distance to stars.
The post also mentions The Old Farmer's Almanac. I used to read this over and over again when I was a kid, along with Webster's Dictionary and Collier's Encyclopedia.
I guess I didn't have much else to do when I couldn't go outside to play during those long Michigan winters.
There is a McGyver tip titled Estimate Distances with Your Arm and This Rule of Thumb posted at LifeHacker. I used something like this for range estimation when I was in the Marine Corps. It relies on the ratio of the distance between your eyes and the length of your arm (usually about 1:10). The phenomena is called parallax. Astronomers parallax to estimate the distance to stars.
The post also mentions The Old Farmer's Almanac. I used to read this over and over again when I was a kid, along with Webster's Dictionary and Collier's Encyclopedia.
I guess I didn't have much else to do when I couldn't go outside to play during those long Michigan winters.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Let the Eagle soar again...
NASA's current budget is 0.6% of the Federal budget. This is an extremely small investment when you consider the real tangible benefits that have been gained from spin-offs from the space program. When you consider the amount of money that is wasted in other areas, it is really sad to see our space program, something that is such a source of pride to our nation, struggle the way it has.
It has been said that if NASA had continued at the pace of the 1960's, we would have humans all over the solar system by now. Think of all of the jobs and other benefits to society that would be created. Think of what our world might be like if more people could see it for what it is - a pale blue dot in space. Wouldn't this view bring us closer together by showing us how we really are all in this together?
I say, let the Eagle soar again. Let us move beyond the pettiness of the last century and become what we can be. Let's inspire the next generation to be the greatest generation, the generation that finally, truly unites us with a common goal. The world is waiting.
Our inheritance is the stars. Let's not wait any longer.
It has been said that if NASA had continued at the pace of the 1960's, we would have humans all over the solar system by now. Think of all of the jobs and other benefits to society that would be created. Think of what our world might be like if more people could see it for what it is - a pale blue dot in space. Wouldn't this view bring us closer together by showing us how we really are all in this together?
I say, let the Eagle soar again. Let us move beyond the pettiness of the last century and become what we can be. Let's inspire the next generation to be the greatest generation, the generation that finally, truly unites us with a common goal. The world is waiting.
Our inheritance is the stars. Let's not wait any longer.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
21st Century Literacies
I just finished watching an interesting presentation on 21st Century Literacies by Howard Rheingold which he presented presented at the Reboot Britian conference in July, 2009. You can view his talk at BlipTV. (Approximate length: 40 minutes)
According to Rheingold, new literacies for students in the 21st century include: Attention, Participation, Cooperation, Collaboration, Critical Consumption (crap detection), Network Awareness.
"Schools are places where we park our children while we go to work and where they learn to be good 19th and 20th century workers. Unfortunately, this is the 21st century...a lot of learning takes place outside of school and when the teacher is not looking." (Rheingold)
"I am not sure how to get there, how to evaluate efforts or measure impacts...whether schooling as we know it is even the place to start building the necessary institution." (Rheingold)
In his talk, he refers to a number of his other articles that have been published, such as the one titled Crap Detection 101.
According to Rheingold, new literacies for students in the 21st century include: Attention, Participation, Cooperation, Collaboration, Critical Consumption (crap detection), Network Awareness.
"Schools are places where we park our children while we go to work and where they learn to be good 19th and 20th century workers. Unfortunately, this is the 21st century...a lot of learning takes place outside of school and when the teacher is not looking." (Rheingold)
"I am not sure how to get there, how to evaluate efforts or measure impacts...whether schooling as we know it is even the place to start building the necessary institution." (Rheingold)
In his talk, he refers to a number of his other articles that have been published, such as the one titled Crap Detection 101.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Destinations: A Future Timeline of Gifted and Talented Education
This is an timeline for a work of fiction that I composed for a course on gifted education that I participated in. It parallels some of the legislation for special education in the US, time-shifted about 50 years into the future. It gets kind of science fiction-like toward the end.
2015: Congress adds Title XII to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 creating a Bureau of Special Education for the Gifted and Talented. Educating gifted and talented students is still not mandated by federal or state law. However, creation of the Bureau signified that a change was on the horizon.
2022: Two significant US Supreme Court decisions [Darcy v. California (2022) and Nguyen v. Topeka Board of Education (2022)] apply the equal protection argument to students with gifts and talents. The courts take the position that children with gifts and talents do not have an equal right to access education as their non-gifted peers. Although there is no existing federal law that mandates this stance, some students begin leaving school to be home schooled as a result of these court decisions.
2023: Section 1054 of the Rehabilitation Act of 2023 is enacted into statute. This national law mandates the identification and tracking of gifted and talented students. This national law was enacted with little fanfare. Most educators were not aware that this applied to public schools.
2025: The Education for Gifted and Talented Children Act (EGTCA) is enacted. This was also known as P.L. 184-1204. Today we know this law as the Individuals with Gifts and Talents Education Act (IGTA). Before 2025, children with gifts and talents were mostly provided an education solely on the basis of their abilities. EGTCA, along with some key Supreme Court cases, mandated all school districts not to educate students with gifted and talented abilities.
2040: The Americans with Gifts and Talents Act (AGTA) is enacted. AGTA adopts the Section 1204 regulations as part of the AGTA statute. In turn, numerous “1204 Plans” for individual students start to become a more common place in school districts. Gifted and Talented students are regulated to special classrooms where their education can be monitored and controlled.
2047: IGTA is reauthorized. This amendment calls for gifted and talented students to be excluded in from state and district-wide assessments. Also, Federal Department of Education agents are now required to be a member of the IEP team. Some Gifted and Talented students are relocated to schools where their needs can be better met.
2051: No Child Gets Ahead is enacted. This law calls for all gifted and talented students to be segregated from the general population by the year 2064. It also sets limits on what can be taught in government schools and enacts strict penalties for schools whose student performance is out of conformance.
2054: IGTA reauthorized There are several changes from the 2047 reauthorization. The biggest changes call for more accountability at the state and local levels for identifying and removing from the general population all Gifted and Talented children. As more data on the number of gifted and talented people still at large are revealed, states react more severely to the crisis. Another notable change involves school districts providing adequate instruction and intervention for students to help keep them out of gifted and talented education.
2062: Executive Order 9066. President Walter N. Utak authorizes the internment of gifted and talented students with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power is used to declare that all gifted and talented are to have their rights as US citizens suspended, except for those in internment camps. In 2064, the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the exclusion orders, while noting that the provisions that singled out the gifted and talented are a separate issue outside the scope of the proceedings.
Internment camps are established in Alaska and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the purpose of relocating the gifted and talented. The US border with Canada is officially closed to prevent fleeing by those seeking a more intellectually tolerant society.
Destinations:
Camp 1 (Minimum Security – Moderately Gifted) is located in Lake Superior National Park 34 miles northwest of the town of Newberry. The residents of Newberry had been evacuated in 2035 after wild fires swept through the region.
Camp 2 (Highly Gifted) is located near the upper branch of the Coleen River in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge close to the Canada border. The camp is about 85 miles from both the villages of Old Crow in the Yukon Territory and Arctic Village in Alaska’s Brooks Range.
Camp 3 (Exceptionally Gifted) is located near a bend of the Etivluk River about 15 miles from its confluence with the Colville River on Alaska’s North Slope. The closest villages, each about 120 miles from the river bend, are Ambler to the southwest and Atqasuk to the north.
Camp 4 (Maximum Security – Profoundly Gifted) is located on the remote island of St. Matthew, which sits alone in the Bering Sea without road, airstrip, or town. The closest village is Mekoryuk, on Nunivak Island off the Yukon River delta. St. Matthew’s nearest neighbor is 209 miles away.
2064: The "Public Welfare Land Act” becomes law. Also, known as the Great Equalizer, seizes public and private lands which have been used for the "endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college or institution where the leading object has been scientific and classical studies and the mechanic arts in order to promote liberal and practical education." All colleges and universities in the US are closed.
2066: All communications are lost with the island of St. Matthew (Camp 4). Satellite surveillance downlinks showing images of the island are scrambled. The secure inter-web connection is fire-walled by St. Matthew Island. US Intelligence agencies are unable to “hack the system.” All ships and aircraft approaching the island mysteriously vanish.
2068: The United States of America ceases to be a power of any consequence. Anti-intellectualism spreads around the world. The State of Arizona ranks first in the nation in education.
2072: The US-Canadian Virtual War ends in 38 minutes and 27 seconds. Michigan and Maine are annexed by Canada. California, Alaska, and Hawaii secede from the Union.
2078: In an effort to revitalize the economy, Congress declares war on Alaska. Federal troops fire on Camp 3. In one day, one hundred and ninety-seven Federal troops are killed by friendly fire. Internees suffer no losses. The Federal government’s only remaining active combat division is lost in the arctic wilderness.
2082: The European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany detects launches from St. Matthew Island into low Earth orbit. The announcement of the launches is later retracted.
2091: The world economy collapses. China, Russia, South Africa, and India engage in a limited nuclear exchange. The inter-web collapses due to a virus filled upgrade originating in Ohio. World civilization enters an agrarian-based barter economy.
2099: Canada annexes Alaska. Camps 2 and 3 are liberated and found to have booming economies and healthy, prosperous populations. Advances in medicine in Camp 2 have eliminated all disease except for the common cold. Technology in Camp 3 is found to have advanced to include free, limitless energy from zero-point energy sources.
2110: Alaska secedes from Canada and becomes the new world superpower due to the prosperity created by intellectual freedom.
2125: World-wide panic ensues when the European Space Agency announces that a spacecraft of unidentified origin has entered Earth orbit. The unidentified spacecraft is later determined to be a starship launched by the internees of St. Matthew’s Island more than 40 years earlier to colonize an Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri system. The Education Bureau moves to conceal the truth from the general public.
Notes:
The timeline from 2015 until 2054 is based on A Timeline of Special Education History as prepared by John Peterson at http://admin.fortschools.org/PupilServices/StaffInfo/A%20TIMELINE%20OF%20SPECIAL%20EDUCATION%20HISTORY.htm. I attempted to align these dates with the same intervals of time that occurred for the various legal actions involving special education for those with disabilities.
Executive Order 9066 is from an article on Japanese American Internment Law on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment. Executive Order 9066 is the actual order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt that allowed the internment of Japanese-Americans to occur during World War II.
Camp locations are the results of a Google search for most remote locations in the continental US. At least the Alaskan entries are. The one for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is fictional. (Probably)
The entry for 2064: The "Public Welfare Land Act” is based on the 1862 entry on the First Morrill Act at http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html
I learned of the European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany from a search for EAS tracking stations that yielded a reference at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMB0DJJX7F_index_0.html
References to the events of 2091 were inspired by the novel The Humanist Inheritance by M. J. Lineberger.
I conducted a search for earth-like planets on Google and was referred to an article by the Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-529410/Earth-like-planet-supports-life-circling-Suns-nearest-neighbour.html
2015: Congress adds Title XII to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 creating a Bureau of Special Education for the Gifted and Talented. Educating gifted and talented students is still not mandated by federal or state law. However, creation of the Bureau signified that a change was on the horizon.
2022: Two significant US Supreme Court decisions [Darcy v. California (2022) and Nguyen v. Topeka Board of Education (2022)] apply the equal protection argument to students with gifts and talents. The courts take the position that children with gifts and talents do not have an equal right to access education as their non-gifted peers. Although there is no existing federal law that mandates this stance, some students begin leaving school to be home schooled as a result of these court decisions.
2023: Section 1054 of the Rehabilitation Act of 2023 is enacted into statute. This national law mandates the identification and tracking of gifted and talented students. This national law was enacted with little fanfare. Most educators were not aware that this applied to public schools.
2025: The Education for Gifted and Talented Children Act (EGTCA) is enacted. This was also known as P.L. 184-1204. Today we know this law as the Individuals with Gifts and Talents Education Act (IGTA). Before 2025, children with gifts and talents were mostly provided an education solely on the basis of their abilities. EGTCA, along with some key Supreme Court cases, mandated all school districts not to educate students with gifted and talented abilities.
2040: The Americans with Gifts and Talents Act (AGTA) is enacted. AGTA adopts the Section 1204 regulations as part of the AGTA statute. In turn, numerous “1204 Plans” for individual students start to become a more common place in school districts. Gifted and Talented students are regulated to special classrooms where their education can be monitored and controlled.
2047: IGTA is reauthorized. This amendment calls for gifted and talented students to be excluded in from state and district-wide assessments. Also, Federal Department of Education agents are now required to be a member of the IEP team. Some Gifted and Talented students are relocated to schools where their needs can be better met.
2051: No Child Gets Ahead is enacted. This law calls for all gifted and talented students to be segregated from the general population by the year 2064. It also sets limits on what can be taught in government schools and enacts strict penalties for schools whose student performance is out of conformance.
2054: IGTA reauthorized There are several changes from the 2047 reauthorization. The biggest changes call for more accountability at the state and local levels for identifying and removing from the general population all Gifted and Talented children. As more data on the number of gifted and talented people still at large are revealed, states react more severely to the crisis. Another notable change involves school districts providing adequate instruction and intervention for students to help keep them out of gifted and talented education.
2062: Executive Order 9066. President Walter N. Utak authorizes the internment of gifted and talented students with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power is used to declare that all gifted and talented are to have their rights as US citizens suspended, except for those in internment camps. In 2064, the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the exclusion orders, while noting that the provisions that singled out the gifted and talented are a separate issue outside the scope of the proceedings.
Internment camps are established in Alaska and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the purpose of relocating the gifted and talented. The US border with Canada is officially closed to prevent fleeing by those seeking a more intellectually tolerant society.
Destinations:
Camp 1 (Minimum Security – Moderately Gifted) is located in Lake Superior National Park 34 miles northwest of the town of Newberry. The residents of Newberry had been evacuated in 2035 after wild fires swept through the region.
Camp 2 (Highly Gifted) is located near the upper branch of the Coleen River in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge close to the Canada border. The camp is about 85 miles from both the villages of Old Crow in the Yukon Territory and Arctic Village in Alaska’s Brooks Range.
Camp 3 (Exceptionally Gifted) is located near a bend of the Etivluk River about 15 miles from its confluence with the Colville River on Alaska’s North Slope. The closest villages, each about 120 miles from the river bend, are Ambler to the southwest and Atqasuk to the north.
Camp 4 (Maximum Security – Profoundly Gifted) is located on the remote island of St. Matthew, which sits alone in the Bering Sea without road, airstrip, or town. The closest village is Mekoryuk, on Nunivak Island off the Yukon River delta. St. Matthew’s nearest neighbor is 209 miles away.
2064: The "Public Welfare Land Act” becomes law. Also, known as the Great Equalizer, seizes public and private lands which have been used for the "endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college or institution where the leading object has been scientific and classical studies and the mechanic arts in order to promote liberal and practical education." All colleges and universities in the US are closed.
2066: All communications are lost with the island of St. Matthew (Camp 4). Satellite surveillance downlinks showing images of the island are scrambled. The secure inter-web connection is fire-walled by St. Matthew Island. US Intelligence agencies are unable to “hack the system.” All ships and aircraft approaching the island mysteriously vanish.
2068: The United States of America ceases to be a power of any consequence. Anti-intellectualism spreads around the world. The State of Arizona ranks first in the nation in education.
2072: The US-Canadian Virtual War ends in 38 minutes and 27 seconds. Michigan and Maine are annexed by Canada. California, Alaska, and Hawaii secede from the Union.
2078: In an effort to revitalize the economy, Congress declares war on Alaska. Federal troops fire on Camp 3. In one day, one hundred and ninety-seven Federal troops are killed by friendly fire. Internees suffer no losses. The Federal government’s only remaining active combat division is lost in the arctic wilderness.
2082: The European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany detects launches from St. Matthew Island into low Earth orbit. The announcement of the launches is later retracted.
2091: The world economy collapses. China, Russia, South Africa, and India engage in a limited nuclear exchange. The inter-web collapses due to a virus filled upgrade originating in Ohio. World civilization enters an agrarian-based barter economy.
2099: Canada annexes Alaska. Camps 2 and 3 are liberated and found to have booming economies and healthy, prosperous populations. Advances in medicine in Camp 2 have eliminated all disease except for the common cold. Technology in Camp 3 is found to have advanced to include free, limitless energy from zero-point energy sources.
2110: Alaska secedes from Canada and becomes the new world superpower due to the prosperity created by intellectual freedom.
2125: World-wide panic ensues when the European Space Agency announces that a spacecraft of unidentified origin has entered Earth orbit. The unidentified spacecraft is later determined to be a starship launched by the internees of St. Matthew’s Island more than 40 years earlier to colonize an Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri system. The Education Bureau moves to conceal the truth from the general public.
Notes:
The timeline from 2015 until 2054 is based on A Timeline of Special Education History as prepared by John Peterson at http://admin.fortschools.org/PupilServices/StaffInfo/A%20TIMELINE%20OF%20SPECIAL%20EDUCATION%20HISTORY.htm. I attempted to align these dates with the same intervals of time that occurred for the various legal actions involving special education for those with disabilities.
Executive Order 9066 is from an article on Japanese American Internment Law on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment. Executive Order 9066 is the actual order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt that allowed the internment of Japanese-Americans to occur during World War II.
Camp locations are the results of a Google search for most remote locations in the continental US. At least the Alaskan entries are. The one for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is fictional. (Probably)
The entry for 2064: The "Public Welfare Land Act” is based on the 1862 entry on the First Morrill Act at http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html
I learned of the European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany from a search for EAS tracking stations that yielded a reference at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMB0DJJX7F_index_0.html
References to the events of 2091 were inspired by the novel The Humanist Inheritance by M. J. Lineberger.
I conducted a search for earth-like planets on Google and was referred to an article by the Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-529410/Earth-like-planet-supports-life-circling-Suns-nearest-neighbour.html
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